Home > Categories > Movies > Action > Mr & Mrs Smith review
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie smolder in this sizzling action film from the director of The Bourne Identity.
After five (or six) years of vanilla-wedded bliss, ordinary suburbanites John and Jane Smith are stuck in a rut the size of the Grand Canyon--until the truth comes out! Unbeknownst to each other, they are both coolly lethal, highly paid assassins working for rival organisations.
When they discover they're each other's next target, their secret lives collide in a fun, explosive mix of wicked comedy, pent-up passion, nonstop action and high-tech weaponry that gives an all-new meaning to "Till death do us part!"
DVD Special Features:
• Audio Commentary by Director Doug Liman and Screenwritier Simon Kinberg
• Audio commentary by Producers Lucas, Foster and Avika Goldsman
• Deleted scenes: A cool selection of deleted scenes, including extended action sequences and more of Vaughn's hilarious kitchen diatribes!
• Making a scene Featurette: Go behind the scenes and witness exactly how one of the stunning action sequences of the film was put together!
• Trailers
Product reviews...
This film had potential. The movie cover itself should have told me that I would be disappointed. The idea of a husband and wife secretly being assassins for competing agencies, is potentially a great plot. I was hoping for a stark realisation followed by a retreat and a movie filled with honest attempts to assassinate each other.
I watched the start of the film, eager to see some creative assassinations, and at first it had my curiosity. Instead, I was faced with what was not action, but essentially a comedy. The volume of weaponry that was 'lying around' for them to gain access to was unbelievable, and their cat-and-mouse attempts to kill each other were unconvincing at best. I suppose a team-up was eventually inevitable, but even then it never managed to keep my attention for long. The over-the-top antics were displeasing, and robbed this movie of its right as a classic.
The special effects were great, but the action, was not something that I would consider to be worthy of the genre. To re-iterate my earlier comment, it was perhaps more fitting for a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Its only saving grace, was the casting of Angelina Jolie, which at least gave me something to look at when I began to lose interest
I really didn't enjoy this movie as much as I thought I would i'm generally not much of a fan of action movies anyway but I enjoyed this more as a comedy as I found it to be mostly comical and really far fetched. Some of the attempts the couple had to assasinate each other were so unbelievable.
Although un believable and really far fetched the special effects were incredible with the fighting and weaponry that was non stop throughout the movie. I think it definitely kept you watching it but I can't say I enjoyed it much. The main merit of the movie was the two actors Brad Pitt and Jolie who worked really well together in this movie and both lend themselves to action roles like this.
I think the movie had it's funny scenes so I am probably being a little harsh with my scoring it's just I wouldn't pay to see it again but I would however watch it on free to air television if it came on as it is good for a laugh. I think a lot of people would enjoy this movie though and to people that like action I would recommend it
Thinly plotted, over-actioned, and frankly preposterous, I found it very hard to believe...I know that everything on television isn't real but hey.....this movie so so unrealistic it was silly! However Mr. and Mrs. Smith is entertaining and even clever if you take it on its own terms....which would I would base on the premise being complete nonsense and the resolution is absurd. In between, you see the gorgeous Pitt and Jolie wrestle, argue, leap, dash, and shoot big guns at each other.
Yet the movie offers two surprises. First, Brad Pitt can dance and not only in the sense that he turns a decent tango with Jolie in a flashback scene, but also, more enchantingly, in his performances with inanimate objects, because throughout the movie Pitt leaps through hedges, flies over furniture, juggles a teacup in one scene and a large weapon in another.....talk about taking things just a little bit too far and I think I spent more time laughing at how silly things were getting in the movie rather than thinking wow this movie is amazing.
Genre-mixing is the film's second good idea....and was a saver in the movie somewhat because the equally cocky and apprehensive, John and Jane pretend to be happily married (she buys dreadful draperies, he doesn't notice she's added peas to the dinner menu) even as they live separate lives (they hide their weapons stashes in gendered spaces, hers behind the oven, his in the basement). Again hard to believe but not everything on television is real and of course this a movie so nothing is real....I wouldn't want to watch again....watching it the first time was bad enough thanks.
I am a romantic at heart though so the ending was nice...Their marriage is in a bit of a rut until both of them are hired to kill the same man. Amidst all the action, they learn that they share a high-tech, low-affect appreciation for controlled mayhem, which makes them ideal mates after all....which helps when they join forces for a final shootout against their mutual enemies, their heartless corporate employers. they live happily ever after.
Usually, I am not a fan of Angelina Jolie films... I think she over-acted in Tomb Raider and was quite 'watery' in Pushing Tin, but in this movie, she really took me by surprise. Not only did she suit the part perfectly, she actually managed to pull off the 'detached housewife-as-a-cover-story' tone of the character so well I was was actually able to enjoy the movie. Brad Pitt isn't one of my favourite male lead actors either, but he also did such a great job in this movie that I found it easy to get drawn into the story, enjoy the humour, thrill to the action, and above all accept the plot without reservation.
The plot revolves around a couple of solo assassins who met 5 (or 6) years ago while on-the-job in Bogota. With the police looking for any tourists travelling solo, they quickly fall into the ruse of being a couple to throw the cops off the scent. This leads to a steamy night of fun and passion, which turns into a marriage that is pure fabrication. With lies layered upon lies, two separate lives trying to fake a third mutual family life... it gets messy. And, as with all messy relationships, pieces start to unravel.
When their respective bosses discover that their head operative is married to their opposite number from the 'competing firm', a sting operation is devised that will quite possibly force the couple to take each other out, removing the problem quite nicely. Of course, things don't go quite according to plan, as each has a distictive and non-complimentary style. She likes high-tech solutions, with lots of beeps, boings and flashy lights. He prefers the hands-on approach, with brute force moderated with precision targeting, and an element of face-to-face bravado. This leads ho him distrupting her electronic boodytrap, and she shoots him when he whips out the rocket launcher, which he then fires at her hiding spot. Both escape unharmed, but both left evidence that reveals their identity to the other. From there, things get really messy.
The end results are spectacular... their luxury, 2-storey house blown into pieces no bigger than your hand... lots of operatives, sent in to finish the job, getting killed... and a final "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" style shootout in a department store in the middle of the night. Not to mention a reconciliation of the otherwise disasterous marriage.
Overall, I would have to rate this as the movie that surprised me the most in the last 12 months, mostly because I honestly didn't think I would enjoy it much at all, and yet loved it... even after the third viewing in a week. Not many movies have ever done that. It has definitely earned a place of honour on my 'Bet you didn't see THAT coming' shelf.
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